Monday, December 15, 2014

End of Life Choice? - What choice?



Ian Lees-Galloway
So Labour Leader Andrew Little has "told" Ian Lees-Galloway that he is not to put his private member's End of Life Choice bill back into the parliamentary Ballot Box.

I was not unsympathetic to the decision made that the EOLC bill be withdrawn last year so that it did not become an election issue. That was understandable - to a degree. But I am now deeply disappointed that the party leader who is trying to convince the electorate that Labour is still "socially progressive" is not able to at least permit one of his members to give the draft bill a chance of gaining legislaters' attention.

It is reasonable that a private member's bill be given a certain amount of scrutiny by a party leader before the individual takes the plunge. It is understandable that promoting such a bill will draw off some of the energies of the member concerned. But the airy dismissal of this issue as a controversy that does not warrant consideration "at this time" because of Labour's political predicaments is frustrating for two reasons.

The EOLC Bill is already favoured in some form or other in opinion polls. And a huge amount of promotional work has been done and will continue to be done using energies outside of Mr Lees-Galloway's own resources. If the bill is put back into the ballot, and is actually drawn, there is no doubt that the issue will at least receive serious consideration.
Andrew Little apparently stated (disparagingly?) that this "stuff on euthanasia" is not timely for a progressive party.

In what I interpret as a dismissive and ill-considered decision I think he has made a profound misjudgment of both the issue and the mood of the electorate. Both deserve better from an aspiring Prime Minister. I suggest that the test for him now is whether or not he is able to reconsider this unfortunate and inappropriate decision.

4 comments:

  1. I would think the disappointed members might consider voting NZ First next time.

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  2. Well summarised Dave. I had just given Andrew Little a tick and now straight away I am afraid he gets a cross. I can only bhope that the joint efforts of VESNZ and others can put on enough pressure in the coming months to change his mind. Thankyou Robin Lieffering

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  3. Very sad to see this decision by Mr Little. Labour is not for me!

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  4. At the moment we only have indecent legal means to end our lives if need be. We also have illegal decent means to do the same. What are motives or morals of our legislators to delay the introduction of the law allowing me to end my life in a decent way?
    if in the coming months no new parliamentarian can be found to reintroduce Maryan Street,s Bill, should we consider collecting signatures for a referendum , albeit non-binding.

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